Oh, one extra thing on Oakland Unified

This is such a disgusting minor anecdote that I want it to have a wider audience than just Oakland. In general, I'd say that teachers' unions have done a poor job of arguing politically either about school reform or about contesting student testing via standardized tests. We seem to have conceded the terrain. And whenever a workers' group does that, the media is all too happy to step into the vacuum and fill it up with offensive, nauseating, contemptibly slanted coverage. That role, in Oakland, was taken for years by a prick named Alex Katz. But he's no longer the main Education reporter for the Oakland Tribune. No, he has a new job. What's his new job, you ask? He's the PR liaison for the Oakland Unified School District. Never has there been a more fitting, if overdue, transition.